The primary mission of the Integrative Health Sciences Facility Core (IHSFC) is to support CEHS investigators who conduct research using human study participants. IHSFC addresses four broad areas of interest. First, the IHSFC provides scientific consultation for clinical and population-based studies. These services promote collaborations and enhance scientific productivity. Second, biospecimen processing and genotyping sub-core laboratories provide platforms for short-term pilot projects and long-term epidemiologic studies for Center members. These sub-core laboratories provide access to state of the art equipment and a high level of quality control and maximal throughput that could not be achieved by individual investigators. The genotyping sub-core also provides typing of laboratory rodent strains in order to promote cross-disciplinary collaborations in functional and comparative genomics for Center members. Third, the IHSFC provides expertise in spatial analysis and geographic information systems, in order to integrate human epidemiologic studies with environmental exposure measurement. Fourth, the IHSFC serves as a liaison to a variety of core laboratories, resources and facilities at UNC that are of use to specific CEHS investigators. The IHSFC is closely integrated with the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Facility Core (BBFC) and the Systems Biology Facility Core (SBFC) through the Research Navigator and the Flexible Interdisciplinary Research Groups (FIRG).